Agricultural Resources

Resources for Group-Based Agricultural Businesses

Together We Prosper: Group-Based Businesses Sustaining Agriculture in the Northeast (Powerpoint)

The Cooperative Development Institute created this group-based business resource guide to help farmers, agricultural service providers, and economic development professionals work together to develop the products, services, markets and businessstructures that are needed to sustain agriculture in the Northeast. Despite the impressive successes enjoyed by many group-owned agricultural businesses, information about this approach as a strategy for sustaining agriculture is widely scattered and hard to come by.

This guide begins to fill that void by providing access to group-based business production, distribution and marketing concepts, models and best practices. In so doing we hope to not only strengthen farmer efforts at collaboration, but equally important to contribute to the development of a strong network of agriculture service providers and business specialists supportive of their efforts.

And because this site is a work in progress, we encourage you to send your suggestions for improving the guide, resources to add, links to make, etc. to the Cooperative Development Institute: info@cdi.coop.

Please note that the guide is designed as a PowerPoint Presentation with 106 pages. Please download to share with others and know that more information and support is available from the Cooperative Development Institute. If you need the guide sent as a Word document, please email us at the above address.

Acknowledgements

This resource would not be possible without the generous support of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (NE SARE) and the many hours of fruitful dialogue and debate amongst the Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Committee for this project.

Some of the information was taken from The Cooperative Leader, editor Jane Livingston, published by Cooperative Development Institute.

Other Resources

Market Planning for Value-Added Agricultural Products

Preserving Rural Character through Agriculture: A Resource Kit for Planners